The Dawn Mission to Understand Dwarf Planet Closely

11/17/2017 12:00:00 AM

A celestial body that is present in orbit around the Sun, having sufficient mass for its own gravity to deal with complex body forces for retaining its shape, is called dwarf planet. Dwarf Planet is not exactly a satellite. In the latest research about them the scientists have revealed the Ceres' surface features to get some information about the dwarf planet's interior advancements. They are trying to understand the series of pits and small, that is the secondary craters that are very common on Ceres.

The latest findings is based on the idea that, hundreds of millions years ago, materials beneath Ceres' surface pushed toward the exterior surface. It created fractures in the crust. While doing that the outer layer was pulled apart, causing the fractures. The indication of outburst material under Ceres' surface helps in anticipating how the dwarf planet may have evolved with time. A map of over 2,000 linear features on Ceres greater than 0.6 mile in length was located outside of craters. The biggest challenge that the scientist faced was differentiating between secondary crater chains and pit chains.

Secondary crater chains are the most common of the linear features. They are long strings of circular depressions made by fragments thrown out of large impact craters. But Pit chains, are expressions of subsurface fractures. There is a possibility that freezing of a global subsurface ocean or stresses from a large impact might have formed the fractures.